ISSUE

Winter 2009

Trauma in the Aftermath

Reporting in the aftermath of tragedy and violence, journalists discover what happens when people survive crippling moments of horror. Pushing past what is formulaic and numbing, they find ways to craft stories where the touch is raw and real. In this issue of Nieman Reports, journalists are joined by trauma researchers and survivors themselves in telling their stories in their own voices. We invite you to listen in.

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Articles

Features

When Language Fails Us

‘… truth is not at all lovely and not at all reconcilable with the military communiqués of war correspondence.’
Alexander McFarlane
January 20, 2010
Features

Tugging Meaning Out of Trauma

‘The journalists, by telling the survivors’ stories, are a witness to the witness and they bring that story to the larger society.’
Drew Gilpin Faust
January 20, 2010
Opinion

The Important History News Organizations Have to Tell

By creating archives of company records ‘we can learn how the paper developed and organized itself, how editors and reporters approached stories, and how community leaders and ordinary citizens responded…
John Maxwell Hamilton
December 17, 2009
Forming Connection, Finding Comfort
Features

Forming Connection, Finding Comfort

An Essay in Words and Photographs
Donna DeCesare
December 15, 2009
Shooting War: A Photographer’s Vision
Features

Shooting War: A Photographer’s Vision

An Essay in Words and Photographs
Marcus Bleasdale
December 15, 2009
Features

When Murder Strikes a Small Community

‘What is a news organization’s responsibility to its reporters who are eyewitness to murder? Can an editorial staff experience depression or long-term PTSD as a result of such exposure?’
Don Corrigan
December 15, 2009
Features Trauma-informed Journalism

How to Do an Interview—When Trauma Is the Topic

‘It’s just a totally different landscape when dealing with someone who’s been traumatized. They don’t know the rules, and what’s so essential in these interviews is to give the person…
Karen Brown
December 15, 2009
Features

Trauma in New Orleans: In the Wake of Katrina

Journalists and a poet explore this story’s intimacy, its emotional power, and its cultural significance.
Brett Myers
December 15, 2009
Features

The Conference | Covering Violence and Tragedy

A doctor in a Fallujah, Iraq hospital raises an X-ray to show head injuries to this 9-year-old boy whose home was hit by American airstrikes. Three members of his family,…
Melissa Ludtke
December 15, 2009
Features

Connecting Threads of Individual Pain With Societal Responsibility

From Northern Ireland, Chile and Kosovo come stories of the struggle people have in healing from terror and torture when political accountability and reconciliation are absent.
Anna Di Lellio
December 15, 2009
When War Ends: The Trauma That Remains
Features Trauma-informed Journalism

When War Ends: The Trauma That Remains

An Essay in Words and Photographs
Lori Grinker
December 15, 2009
Features

When a Crime Is Just the Beginning of the Story

By establishing relationships of trust with those touched by crime, reportiers discover and imtimacy of throught and emotion that can assist healing—for individuals and for communities.
Julia Reynolds
December 15, 2009
Features

In an Instant, a Bomb Claims Lives and Devastates a Survivor

‘Every part of him was taped and bandaged because of burns and infections, except for his cheeks … his mouth … and his eyes …’
David Finkel
December 15, 2009
Telling Untold Stories of What Happened in Iraq
Features

Telling Untold Stories of What Happened in Iraq

An Essay in Words and Photographs
Kael Alford
December 15, 2009
Features

Toxic Storytelling: When Trauma Is Sensationalized

Families found a variety of ways to float away from their flooding homes; some, like this one, were rescued in boats as the water rose in the Lower Ninth Ward…
Richard Mollica
December 15, 2009
Features

Reporting the Iraq War: Whose Truth Is Being Told?

‘… I used to tell the American correspondent, “You know what, you’re writing my story. I’m writing my story. When we cover a car bomb, it’s my neighborhood.” For an…
Abdul Razzaq al-Saiedi
December 15, 2009
Features

It Matters Who Tells the Story in the Middle East

‘The deliberate or unconscious dehumanization of Arabs is also reflected in the way they are portrayed on television. … selective images confirm the stereotype that Arabs are inherently violent.’
Bruce Shapiro
December 15, 2009
Features

Narratives—With Trauma at Their Core

‘There’s a kind of emotional insight that a skilled writer with a great command of language and of the human condition brings to a story.’
Constance Hale
December 15, 2009
Features

Visual Storytelling About the Human Condition

‘The tools are so powerful now that, as journalists, we can … be focused on doing the kind of journalism we want to do and then partnering with other organizations…
Amy Hill
December 15, 2009
Features

A Journalist and a Survivor

‘If I can give advice to journalists, I suggest it’s all about relationships.’
Esad Boškailo
December 15, 2009
Features

Winter 2009: Introduction

Reporting in the aftermath of tragedy and violence, journalists discover what happens when people survive crippling moments of horror. Pushing past what is formulaic and numbing, they find ways to…
Melissa Ludtke
December 15, 2009
Features

Bringing What’s Buried in Folders to Life

‘The closer I felt to these people, the more attention I paid to details—to timelines, to chronologies, to what kind of food they ate, what kind of medication they were…
Arnessa Garrett
December 15, 2009
Features

Approaching Emotional Pain—As a Journalist

‘Routinely we witness the awful things that people do to each other and the most enduring awfulness of all, the aftermath.’
Elana Newman
December 15, 2009
Features

Tears Are Part of Telling the Story

‘That day in the bedroom Gary asked the questions; he fought the urge to cry. He did his job.’
Mike Walter
December 15, 2009
Features

When They Come for Us

‘… when you are compelled to leave your … family, your work, your country, and your life as you knew it, that’s when you realize you cannot give up. You…
Sonali Samarasinghe Wickrematunge
December 15, 2009
Features

Manipulator or Human Rights Facilitator?

A journalist involved with the South African Broadcasting Corporation’s radio coverage of that country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission describes how it was done and why decisions made about its approach…
Antjie Krog
December 14, 2009
Features

Art and Literature: Guiding Journalists in Trauma’s Portrayal

‘… Nieman Fellows who’d been in the Balkans wanted to take courses in music, art, poetry, and other kinds of literature. I don’t think this happens arbitrarily.’
E. Ann Kaplan
December 11, 2009
Features

Art and Trauma—And Journalist as Observer

‘We have to be inside of the circle to understand the conversation, to get down and dirty with the people who are making art, and still keep that distance by…
Alicia Anstead
December 11, 2009
Features

‘Entering Darkness’

Depicting an individual’s story leads viewers to awareness of a ‘generalized horror.’
E. Ann Kaplan
December 11, 2009
Opinion

Media Criticism: Journalism vs. Advocacy

‘… press analysts who back up their judgments with reporting, research, style and wit’ earn praise, but it’s advocacy groups from both sides of the political spectrum who receive much…
Dan Kennedy
December 11, 2009
Features

The Iraqi Shoe-Thrower: When Endangered Journalists Need Help

 ‘I wonder how different things would have turned out if I could have found help for al-Zaidi. If assistance came sooner for his possible post-traumatic stress, maybe the shoe-throwing incident…
Jerome Aumente
December 11, 2009
Nieman Notes

A Laid-off Journalist Charts a New Course via Social Media

Traveling the country, she and her family were inspired by hearing people’s stories of resilience in hard times.
Andrea McCarren
December 11, 2009
Opinion

Two Opposing Viewpoints—and Responses—on ‘Spies’ and I.F. Stone

To the Editor:The review published in the Fall 2009 issue of Nieman Reports of “Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America,” by John Earl Haynes, Harvey Klehr…
December 11, 2009
Opinion

Taking Issue with Jerry Kammer’s ‘Struggle to Be Heard’ on Immigration

To the Editor:I’m writing to set the record straight and correct some troubling misperceptions created by Jerry Kammer’s article, “An Opposing Viewpoint: The Struggle to Be Heard,” printed in the…
December 11, 2009
Nieman Notes

Bringing the Wit and Wisdom of Molly Ivins to the Stage

Two journalists turned playwrights mine a mother lode of material in the writings of the acerbic political observer.
Allison Engel
December 11, 2009
From the Curator

Bolstering a Beat: A Nieman Fellowship for Business Journalism

‘This Reynolds fellowship is designed to help journalists acquire new levels of knowledge and understanding about business and economic systems.’
Bob Giles
December 11, 2009
Diversity

Women War Correspondents: They Are Different in So Many Ways

‘It is not by chance that these women have gravitated to the frontlines of war.’
Anthony Feinstein
December 11, 2009
Opinion

Public Interest Policies for the Digital Age

A book-length exploration of digital media’s future fails ‘to address the core question: Where is the new public square?’
Cameron McWhirter
December 11, 2009
Features

In Search of an ‘Inside Narrative’

‘Very often, as journalists, we end up telling these kinds of outside narratives when we go to official sources for the most difficult and intimate stories.’
Bruce Shapiro
December 11, 2009
Opinion

From Journalism to Self-Publishing Books

‘Our experience with print-on-demand books offers promising and challenging news.’
Fons Tuinstra
December 10, 2009
Features

Strategies for Reporters Coping With Stress

Julia Reynolds offers approaches to handling the stress that can be part of this demanding crime beat.RELATED ARTICLE“When a Crime Is Just the Beginning of the Story”Learn to tell our…
Julia Reynolds
December 10, 2009
Features

Altruism’s Rise in the Wake of Disaster

Rebecca Solnit’s wide-ranging inquiry into disaster led her to a surprisingly good-hearted view of human nature. “In the wake of an earthquake, a bombing, or a major storm, most people…
Jan Gardner
December 9, 2009